Target, OfficeMax and eBay are among the world’s most ethical companies, according to an annual ranking. The World's Most Ethical Companies ranking is compiled by the Ethisphere Institute, an international think tank dedicated, as the organization stated, to the creation, advancement and sharing of best practices in business ethics, corporate social responsibility, anti-corruption and sustainability.

The full range of retailers on the list includes:

eBay

H&M

Marks and Spencer

OfficeMax

PetCo

Safeway

SONAE

Target

Ten Thousand Villages

The Co-operative Group

Whole Foods Markets

To assemble its list of most ethical companies, Ethisphere uses a proprietary rating system, the corporate Ethics Quotient, which is compiled by asking a series of multiple choice questions that capture a company’s performance in an objective, consistent and standardized way, the organization stated. Ethisphere noted that it doesn’t intend that the data cover all aspects of corporate governance, risk, sustainability, compliance or ethics but rather incorporate a comprehensive sampling of definitive core competency criteria.